American music highlights from Mason Jarboe's recital

Mason Jarboe

For those of you who missed the live video feed of barihunk Mason Jarboe's senior recital at the University of North Texas Recital Hall on Friday, you're in luck. We're posting some of the hightlights of the recital, where he was joined by accompanist Boeun Kim.

The program featured works by Barber, Bach, Chausson, Mahler, Rossini and Massenet. In our tradition of promoting American music, we're sharing the performances by Samuel Barber, Clint Borzoni and Sam Sweet. 

Composer S.K. Sweet's Sommerlieder is a 21st century take on the romantic German song cycle. Its texts, written by Jarboe in the Summer of 2014 at Seagle Music Colony in Schroon Lake, NY, are part of a larger collection titled "Texts you never got from me," a collection of actual text messages that he tried to send that were mostly not delivered due to the poor cell service.

 
This site has been a huge proponent of the music of Clint Borzoni, who has written over seventy pieces, including two full-length operas, two one-act operas, a piano concerto, percussion quartet, work for orchestra, two string quartets, several works for chamber orchestra and over forty art songs.

Much of his vocal writing prominently features baritones, including the two lead roles in his recent opera When Adonis Calls, a leading bass role and baritone role in Antinous and Hadrian, two recent works for String Quartet and Baritone (Stufen and Margere Kost) written for Marco Vassalli, a set of Walt Whitman songs for baritone, the song cycle Awake the Dawn written for baritone Seth Kershisnik, and the song cycle Live Oak Growing written for baritones Tim Hill and Randal Turner. He's also working on a new piece for barihunk Edward Nelson, which will be performed with Musica Marin this year, where he is composer in residence.

Here is what Mason Jarboe said about the Borzoni songs:

"The songs 'I Dreamed in a Dream' and 'That Shadow, my Likeness' are right up there with my favorite English language songs ever written. If I had time I would've thrown in 'Tired' from Vaughan Williams' Last Four Songs, but some other time. For me, those three songs in the final set of my recital paint such a poignant picture of the realization, really the epiphany, I had towards classical vocal music, and Clint's songs perfectly show the progress I have made within my own life; the thankfulness of the first piece in which I can recognize everyone who has so warmly embraced me on my journey towards true artistry as well as the sense of community I have felt; truly a 'city of friends,' and the second, the acceptance of myself. The understanding that every perfectly imperfect aspect of me comes together in such a funny and beautiful way to create a human, a man, an artist, that I am proud to present today, no matter how many high G's he has to put out in a recital (11, and four F#s) and no matter what anyone around him thinks. Thanks to such perfect settings of such perfect texts by Mr. Borzoni, I know that my art matters, that I matter as an artist, and, most importantly, that what I and my brilliant colleagues do as musicians has such an important role in so many people's everyday lives that I will never stop striving to show to them. I just adore his music, and I really can't wait to get to work on my next Borzoni project."

Samuel Barber's music, masterfully crafted and built on romantic structures and sensibilities, is at once lyrical, rhythmically complex, and harmonically rich. His writing is lyrical with expressive and nuanced shadings and a keen connection to the text. Songs like "Sure on this shining night" have become standards on song recital programs. Barber wrote his first piece at age 7 and attempted his first opera at age 10. At the age of 14 he entered the Curtis Institute, where he studied voice, piano, and composition. Later, he studied conducting with Fritz Reiner.

St Ita’s vision is the third song of Hermit Songs op.29, which premiered on October 30, 1953 at the Library of Congress with soprano Leontyne Price and the composer at the piano. The cycle is based on anonymous Irish texts from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries written by monks and students, commenting about daily life, nature and God. The piano part, mainly in arpeggios, contributes also to the sense of motion and the sweetness and dreamy atmosphere.

Samuel Barber wrote numerous songs set to some of the world's greatest poets, including James Joyce, Matthew Arnold, Rainer Maria Rilke, A.E. Housman, James Agee and James Stephens. Some of Barber’s greatest music stemmed from these poetic inspirations, including the Hermit Songs, Knoxville: Summer of 1915, the three powerful James Joyce settings and Rilke's texts for Mélodies passagères.

At Curtis, Barber met Gian Carlo Menotti with whom he would form a lifelong personal and professional relationship. Menotti supplied libretti for Barber's operas Vanessa (for which Barber won the Pulitzer) and A Hand of Bridge.
 
Make sure to order your 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar, which is on sale now at LULU. 

Mason Jarboe to feature Clint Borzoni songs in recital; Debuts Sweet's Sommerlieder

Mason Jarboe as Don Giovanni

Barihunk Mason Jarboe will perform his senior recital at the University of North Texas Recital Hall at 5PM on Friday, December 2nd.  Joined by accompanist Boeun Kim, the program features works by Barber, Bach, Chausson, Mahler, Rossini (featuring mezzo-soprano Madelaine Martinez), Massenet (featuring soprano Megan Gryga), Barber, and Clint Borzoni. Jarboe will also perform the world premiere of Sam Sweet's Sommerlieder, with texts by the baritone. 

Avid readers of the site, might recall that Jarboe has appeared twice on this site, once in a group photo of barihunks doing the "baritone claw" and again with a group of barihunks at Seagle Music Colony sporting Barihunk T-shirts. He was a young artist at Seagle in 2014 and 2015.

We've never properly introduced Jarboe, who is a senior vocal performance major at the University of North Texas. We first saw him when he was just 19 and making After making his professional debut at the Fort Worth Opera as the French Sentry in Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer-winning opera Silent Night.  He recently sang the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Opera in the Ozarks, where he had previously performed Tonio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci and Michele in Puccini's Il Tabarro. In the 2015-2016 season, he was an education outreach young artist at The Dallas Opera, where he sang the role of Colas in Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne

We asked Jarboe about some of the music on the program and what it meant to him. 

Of Samuel Barber's piece he commented, "The first song, Barber's St. Ita's Vision, was one of the few single pieces that I can trace back to really throwing me headlong into the vocal career track."

Randal Turner sings Clint Borzoni's "I Dream'd in a Dream":

This site has been a huge proponent of the American composer Clint Borzoni and helped fund a concert of American music featuring Randal Turner and the world premiere of two songs for String Quartet and Baritone performed by Marco Vassalli. 

We were thrilled to see that Jarboe was performing two of our favorite songs and here's what he had to say about them:

"The songs 'I Dreamed in a Dream' and 'That Shadow, my Likeness' are right up there with my favorite English language songs ever written. If I had time I would've thrown in 'Tired' from Vaughan Williams' Last Four Songs, but some other time. For me, those three songs in the final set of my recital paint such a poignant picture of the realization, really the epiphany, I had towards classical vocal music, and Clint's songs perfectly show the progress I have made within my own life; the thankfulness of the first piece in which I can recognize everyone who has so warmly embraced me on my journey towards true artistry as well as the sense of community I have felt; truly a 'city of friends,' and the second, the acceptance of myself. The understanding that every perfectly imperfect aspect of me comes together in such a funny and beautiful way to create a human, a man, an artist, that I am proud to present today, no matter how many high G's he has to put out in a recital (11, and four F#s) and no matter what anyone around him thinks. Thanks to such perfect settings of such perfect texts by Mr. Borzoni, I know that my art matters, that I matter as an artist, and, most importantly, that what I and my brilliant colleagues do as musicians has such an important role in so many people's everyday lives that I will never stop striving to show to them. I just adore his music, and I really can't wait to get to work on my next Borzoni project."

Composer S.K. Sweet's Sommerlieder is a 21st century take on the romantic German song cycle. Its texts, written by Jarboe in the Summer of 2014 at Seagle Music Colony in Schroon Lake, NY, are part of a larger collection titled "Texts you never got from me," a collection of actual text messages that he tried to send that were mostly not delivered due to the poor cell service.

 Make sure to order your 2017 Barihunks in Bed calendar, which is on sale now at LULU. 

Glenn Seven Allen and Edwin Crossley-Mercer

Barihunk "Group Claw" at Seagle Music Colony

Top::  Kyle White, Ryan Stoll, Michael Miller, Eric McConnell
Middle:  Blake Jennings, Mason Jarboe, Thomas West, Nate Mattingly
Bottom Row:  Patrick Jones, Johnny Salvesen, Ryan Hill, Andrew Simpson

The low voices at this year's Seagle Music took a group photo in their new Barihunk t-shirts and giving the camera their best baritone claws.

This year's season included Verdi's Falstaff, Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Sondheim's Into the Woods, Schönberg & Boubill's Les Misérables, Andrew Duncan's The Ugly Duckling and a special guest appearance.

Seagle Music Colony, which was founded in 1915, is the oldest summer singer training program in the country.

Bevy of Barihunks at 2014 Seagle Music Colony

Bottom Row - Austin Siebert, George Arvidson, Clay Thompson, Nate Mattingly, Mason Jarboe, Michael Miller

Top Row - Keith Browning, Trevor Martin, Michael Hewitt, Damian Faul

The Seagle Music Colony in upstate New York, which was one of our first recipients of a grant from our calendar sales, has assembled quite a bevy of barihunks this season. The minute we saw the roster, we offered to ship off some of our tee-shirts in exchange for a group of photo. Wow, were we pleased when the photos arrived.

The training program just wrapped up performances of Lerner & Loewe's Camelot, a children's performance of Hansel & Gretel, Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers and Side by Side by Sondheim. From July 30-August 2, they'll present Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, followed by Bernstein's West Side Story and a Vespers concert.

L to R = Michael Miller, Mason Jarboe, Austin Siebert, Trevor Martin, Michael Hewitt, Keith Browning, Damian Faul, George Arvidson, Nate Mattingly and Clay Thompson

The critical role of Olin Blitch in Susannah will be shared by Nathaniel Mattingly (July 30, Aug. 1), William Clay Thompson (July 31, Aug. 2), Trevor Martin will sing Elder McLean and George Arvidson will sing Elder Ott. In West Side Story Trevor Martin will sing Bernardo, William Clay Thompson will sing Detective Schrank, George Arvidson is Riff and Austin Siebert as Diesel.

In the recently completed performances of The Italian Girl in Algiers, directed by John De Los Santos, the role of Mustafa was alternated between Austin Seibert and Michael Hewitt (who has appeared in the Barihunks calendar), while Mason Jarboe sang Haly.

Michael Hewitt as he appeared in the 2013 Barihunks calendar

Camelot featured Damian Faul as Merlyn, Trevor Martin as Arthur, Michael Hewitt as Lancelot nad William Clay Thompson as Mordred.

Seagle Music Colony is the oldest summer vocal training program in the United States and was awarded the "Best Cultural Event" in the Adirondacks by the Adirondack Local Government Conference Committee.  We highly suggest that you join Barihunk in financially supporting this great program. If you're interested in making a donation, please click HERE.